Then We Came to the End: A Novel

After hearing how funny this book was, seeing how many awards it had won, I tried to read it several times. Recently I picked it back up (after putting it down months ago) but quickly just gave up again - permanently this time. The long rambling pointless prose style just got to me. Couldn't stand it. It's like listening to that long-winded person everyone has in their office tell what should be a brief story about what they did last night - they drone on and on, sticking in details that don't matter, subreferencing to an extent that would drive Dennis Miller crazy, and won't just get to the point, until you forgot why you even cared and you wish they would just stop so you could get back to work. Yes, there are some very pointed and funny observations in the book, but they are buried within long passages that go nowhere and serve no purpose. I wanted to like this book, can relate to the material (recently lost my job after watching other waves of layoffs) but in the end just couldn't get through it.

I'm about a fifth of the way through this book, and I'm having a really tough time getting through it. Like many of the other reviewers, I was impressed by the praise it was getting and was expecting a quick, entertaining read. Instead, reading it has dragged on for 2 weeks (I actually stopped and read Generation Kill, which is the same size, in 2 days in between). A lot of the negative reviewers have mentioned the Office in comparison, and I think that highlights how poorly the characters are developed in this book. On the Office, Michael is a massive douche 80% of the time, but the other 20% is used humanize him, make him sympathetic, and provide insights on why he is the way he is. As a result, you care about the character, and his bumbling comes off funny and less anger-inducing. That is not the case in this book. So far, I have seen nothing to make any of the characters endearing. As a result, you have the guy that plays asinine pranks, the guy that prattles on about his "buckshelves", and the guy that constantly interrups. They are all hateable, because there's nothing that makes them stand out in any way except for their annoying quirks. I don't think I can finish this one, which bugs me, because I rarely put a book down, and I'm also tempted to find out what this "High school writing" ending is.

Everyday we spend the best part of our energy on the people who work with us. That ad hoc family that surrounds us day after day. The people we know better than some our own family, and yet really don't know at all. The agency is downsizing, restructuring any other term they can find for layoffs. Every day brings the anticipation and dread. Will it be Carl, who has been more and more erratic as of late, or Jim, who always manages to say the most inappropriate thing, Karen who can reduce even the most heartbreaking incident into something to be mocked, Chris who pilfers a coworker's chair, or Marcia the acid tongued? Of course we could all be like Joe, perfect Joe, who is always ready when called upon, never joins in the pranks or gossip or complains about being the target of the group's increasingly childish jokes and seems to have the respect of their boss Lynn. Joe will never make the Spanish walk with his belongings in a box, escorted by security. One of their main topics of speculation on the health of one of the agency's partners, Lynn. As coworkers become more paranoid and spend more time talking than working, the layoffs continue. The more employees try to ferret out the less they actually know about their coworkers and about their eventual fate.

Then We Came to the End is a wickedly funny first novel from Joshua Ferris. He has captured the endless quest of the office worker to fill time without actually working. The gossip, the endless jockeying for recognition, the speculation on what's ahead...the aggression and apathy. This was an entertaining book.

Some really good writing and an interesting premise, but not an appealing read. Is it reading a first person plural narration? Maybe. Or could it be the fact that it's more a vertical story than a horizontal one? I'm not sure. A lot of people like this book, but I wouldn't recommend it.

At the risk of sounding like a snob, I have to think that any reviewers saying this book is boring or bad are just not good readers, or should stick to action packed genre fiction. This is one of the more incredible books I've read in recent years. It's slow-paced but every sentence is delicious...it's incredibly fresh, full of humor and sharp observation about people, work, and life. There are a lot of characters, so if you read it on and off over the course of a couple months, you probably won't feel as engaged with the story...it's a great read if you have time to really plow through it. You'll become incredibly interested in the characters in their glorious weird individuality and you'll become totally engaged in their mundane, gossipy lives. If you stick with it, the book becomes genuinely moving and even truly exciting at its climax. It's incredibly original and such a rewarding read if you have a taste for subtletly, humor, and human observation. If you find yourself bored by it, stick to the da vinci code.